OK here it is. CONQUER MAN!!!This is the first draft and I know there are a lot of things to do but I wanted to get input before I spent another 6 hours on it. I KNOW THERE ARE ONLY RED TERRITORIES. I will start working on layout and gameplay as soon as I get a positive response.

Things which I will be adding or tweaking are listed in the to-do section below but I guess I just want to get the overall feeling for the map.

I want it to be pixelly because it is an old arcade style map.
151 territories 600 x 600 small map

Each standard territory will be labeled with a letter in the bottom left corner of that territory. I know this in the the most exciting way to do it but really it is the most efficient and fist the best with the map visually.

EX: Red A, Red X, Cyan B, Orange F, etc.

Each special territory will be based on the type: Conquer Man, Pink ALIEN, Orange Diamond, etc.

TO DO:1) Update legend with standard attack directions UP,DOWN,LEFT,RIGHT
2) Update legend with special attack directions: DIAMONDS can attack each other, ALIENS can attack each other.
3) Update map to have at least 10 different color groups. 4 of which are colored like the DIAMONDS and ALIENS.
4) Update legend to show bonus values for different color groups
5) Discuss different locations of ALIENS and color groups to achieve non symmetrical gameplay on symmetrical map.

Last edited by WidowMakers on Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:05 pm, edited 14 times in total.

Wow. As someone who cut his video gaming teeth pumping nickels into Pac-Man, this looks like some great kitschy fun. When on earth do you sleep, wm?

A couple of questions:
is it -2 per ghost? 'cause should someone start with, say three of them, the fact that they'll be getting a bunch of armies just from the high numbers of territories will be massively offset by the penalty. I understand that they're useful as teleports and bonus components, but the penalty seems high, and will severaly penalize people that start with them... maybe they could start neutral?
In a way, I have the same beef with pac-man, tho it looks like having pac-man and a ghost have bonuses/penalties that cancel each other out. Again, maybe a neutral start.
Given how many armies people will start with (hell, in 3p, each player will start with 50 territories), maybe the neutral values could be set higher than 3... even as high as ten.
One element from the game that you didn't put in is the fruit bonus, which could be an independent +2 or so territory towards the top of the map... or even in the spot below the ghost deployment box.
As far as color group and aliens go, the more asymmetrical, the better. Having one part of the map more powerful than another isn't a bad thing, and in fact only on the deliberately symmetrical maps are things balanced. You don't hear anyone complain that the north of San Francisco or the south of Middle Earth are stronger places to start than anywhere else on the map.

Incandenza wrote:Wow. As someone who cut his video gaming teeth pumping nickels into Pac-Man, this looks like some great kitschy fun. When on earth do you sleep, wm?

A couple of questions:is it -2 per ghost? 'cause should someone start with, say three of them, the fact that they'll be getting a bunch of armies just from the high numbers of territories will be massively offset by the penalty. I understand that they're useful as teleports and bonus components, but the penalty seems high, and will severaly penalize people that start with them... maybe they could start neutral?In a way, I have the same beef with pac-man, tho it looks like having pac-man and a ghost have bonuses/penalties that cancel each other out. Again, maybe a neutral start.Given how many armies people will start with (hell, in 3p, each player will start with 50 territories), maybe the neutral values could be set higher than 3... even as high as ten.One element from the game that you didn't put in is the fruit bonus, which could be an independent +2 or so territory towards the top of the map... or even in the spot below the ghost deployment box.As far as color group and aliens go, the more asymmetrical, the better. Having one part of the map more powerful than another isn't a bad thing, and in fact only on the deliberately symmetrical maps are things balanced. You don't hear anyone complain that the north of San Francisco or the south of Middle Earth are stronger places to start than anywhere else on the map.

Wow, that turned into quite a few things...

1) The ALIENS would start with neutral 1
2) Conquer man would be neutral too. Say 5 or 6
3) Ah Fruit. I forgot to post that. I wll try to work it into the legend (if I have room) Yes it would go below the Alien box
4) asymmetrical is the way I want to go. The issue is there are 151 possible spots for everything. WHERE does everthing go to make the game work????

WidowMakers wrote:4) asymmetrical is the way I want to go. The issue is there are 151 possible spots for everything. WHERE does everthing go to make the game work????

WM

Honestly? I bet you could place the ghosts completely randomly, just as long as they aren't bunched up. I like having pac-man in the starting position, and the diamonds should stay symmetrical given that's how the game runs, but you could probably pick a screenshot of the game off the interwebs and assign ghost positions thusly, and the only one who would complain is marvaddin.

WM...i like the idea myself, and i think it would fill a niche market play out there.

I voted for non-symmetrical.

Also, if you go ahead, are you planning on continuing with the hard edged style, or will you use some anti-aliasing to reduce that hard edge?
I think it could do with less harshness, and as mentioned, the colours are very bold....i agree thay need toning down a fraction.

cairnswk wrote:WM...i like the idea myself, and i think it would fill a niche market play out there.

I voted for non-symmetrical.

Also, if you go ahead, are you planning on continuing with the hard edged style, or will you use some anti-aliasing to reduce that hard edge?I think it could do with less harshness, and as mentioned, the colours are very bold....i agree thay need toning down a fraction.

Good start though.

I am glad you like the idea. I voted non-symmetrical as well. I am going to continue with the hard edge. I spent around 4 hours drawing with a 1x1 pixel pencil in photoshop so I could keep the hard edge on all the pieces of the map. It is the way the video game looked int eh 80's. So it is the style I want to see.

As far as the colors being bold, I am going to look into toning down the white army circles and (I believe) once the different colored pellets (currently all red) are changed to different bonus colors (cyan, pink, orange, blue , magenta, yellow, gray, green, etc) the map will feel better.

OK here is Revision #2
Edits:-Changed the territories to pellets like th actual game. I like it much more.
-Each pellet will have a letter, the name of the territory will be BLUE A or RED G.
-Added the fruit
-Added attack instructions
-Added Bonus values (prelim) for each color group
-Added "Double your bonus by holding all the pellets and diamond of the same color"

Need to do-Get a better idea of the number of territories per color and the placement (that is where all of you come in.) :D:D